stonecutter
02-24-2006, 12:43 PM
On Feb 22nd, 1916, the Germans launched their offensive against Verdun with the aim of bleeding the French Army white. Total combined casualties exceeded over 1,000,000 men, irreperably scarring both armies.
The Bois des Caures, defended by the famous Colonel Driant and his Chasseurs, was among the first places to take the brunt of the German attack:
From The Price of Glory, by Alistair Horne, 1962, p. 83:
All morning the devastating bombardment continued. Then, about midday there was a sudden pause. Suspecting that the attack was now imminent, the shaken survivors in the Bois de Caures emerged from their cover. It was just what the Germans had hoped for, all part of the plan (though neither Stephane nor his commander, Driant, could know this). Now the German artillery artillery observers could see which strong-points, which sections of trench in the French first line appeared to have withstood the terrible 210s. It became the turn of the precise, short-range heavy mortars to administer the coup-de-grace with their huge packets of explosive, while the 210s lifted the new targets further back.
p. 97:
At midday...the bombardment lifted, and the whole weight of the German XVIII corps moved forward against the remnants of Driant's two battalions in waves 500 yards apart. ....Their patrols had uncovered on the Achilles Heels in the French system about which Driant had warned the Army Commission, in the letter that had so outraged Joffre. In the unfair way of war it was Driant, not Joffre, who was now to foot the bill for French neglect. To the right of the Chasseurs the Brandenburg III Corps, marching into battle behind regimental bands, had made a rapid conquest of the Bois de Ville through similar unprotected gaps, enabling the Hessians to swing round against Driant's rear. From this new direction, a mass of some 5,000 Germans now appeared, plainly visible from Driant's command post. Rocket after rocket was sent up to produce a 75 barrage. There was no reponse, but somehow the determined fire of the surviving French machine guns brought to a halt the advance from this flank. Again and again Driant's skilfully sited defence works caught the Germans in a withering cross-fire, inflicing heavy casualties. In the chaos of the devastated wood, the Germans found the going far tougher than expected. ...
The Colonel and his men were eventually overwhelmed and killed, but their stiff resistance to the onslaught helped shake German confidence and delay the offensive by a day, buying the French Army valuable time to reorganize.
Nearby, on Feb 24 (p. 106):
At the village of ********, situated on a strategic rise, and to which Driant had tried to withdraw the previous day, elements of several French regiments fought to the end against repeated attacks. So costly were these to the Germans that the official history compares ******** to St. Privat, one of the bloodiest actions in the Franco-Prussian war. As the Hessians of XVIII Corps closed in on the village the were scythed down by suicide machine guns firing out of concealed cellar apertures, that were only silenced when the houses had been brought down on top of them. To the French defenders it seemed as if the dense German formations were coming in with such rapidity that they were being phsycially swept forward into the French machine guns, by succeeding waves pressing from behind. Casualties among them were enormous. When ******** finally succumbed to this impetus on the 24th, a German lieutenant had to intervene to save the life of the captured French commander from his men, enraged by the casualties they had suffered. ....
Clearly, the battle was not going to be a cakewalk for the Germans, as they had expected. What a pounding both sides took during this epic battle. I read that even today, nothing grows in many parts of the battlefield, where it is estimated that 1,000 shells landed for every square meter. Does anyone know if one can walk through the various woods where the fighting took place, or is it all off-limits because of unexploded shells?
The Bois des Caures, defended by the famous Colonel Driant and his Chasseurs, was among the first places to take the brunt of the German attack:
From The Price of Glory, by Alistair Horne, 1962, p. 83:
All morning the devastating bombardment continued. Then, about midday there was a sudden pause. Suspecting that the attack was now imminent, the shaken survivors in the Bois de Caures emerged from their cover. It was just what the Germans had hoped for, all part of the plan (though neither Stephane nor his commander, Driant, could know this). Now the German artillery artillery observers could see which strong-points, which sections of trench in the French first line appeared to have withstood the terrible 210s. It became the turn of the precise, short-range heavy mortars to administer the coup-de-grace with their huge packets of explosive, while the 210s lifted the new targets further back.
p. 97:
At midday...the bombardment lifted, and the whole weight of the German XVIII corps moved forward against the remnants of Driant's two battalions in waves 500 yards apart. ....Their patrols had uncovered on the Achilles Heels in the French system about which Driant had warned the Army Commission, in the letter that had so outraged Joffre. In the unfair way of war it was Driant, not Joffre, who was now to foot the bill for French neglect. To the right of the Chasseurs the Brandenburg III Corps, marching into battle behind regimental bands, had made a rapid conquest of the Bois de Ville through similar unprotected gaps, enabling the Hessians to swing round against Driant's rear. From this new direction, a mass of some 5,000 Germans now appeared, plainly visible from Driant's command post. Rocket after rocket was sent up to produce a 75 barrage. There was no reponse, but somehow the determined fire of the surviving French machine guns brought to a halt the advance from this flank. Again and again Driant's skilfully sited defence works caught the Germans in a withering cross-fire, inflicing heavy casualties. In the chaos of the devastated wood, the Germans found the going far tougher than expected. ...
The Colonel and his men were eventually overwhelmed and killed, but their stiff resistance to the onslaught helped shake German confidence and delay the offensive by a day, buying the French Army valuable time to reorganize.
Nearby, on Feb 24 (p. 106):
At the village of ********, situated on a strategic rise, and to which Driant had tried to withdraw the previous day, elements of several French regiments fought to the end against repeated attacks. So costly were these to the Germans that the official history compares ******** to St. Privat, one of the bloodiest actions in the Franco-Prussian war. As the Hessians of XVIII Corps closed in on the village the were scythed down by suicide machine guns firing out of concealed cellar apertures, that were only silenced when the houses had been brought down on top of them. To the French defenders it seemed as if the dense German formations were coming in with such rapidity that they were being phsycially swept forward into the French machine guns, by succeeding waves pressing from behind. Casualties among them were enormous. When ******** finally succumbed to this impetus on the 24th, a German lieutenant had to intervene to save the life of the captured French commander from his men, enraged by the casualties they had suffered. ....
Clearly, the battle was not going to be a cakewalk for the Germans, as they had expected. What a pounding both sides took during this epic battle. I read that even today, nothing grows in many parts of the battlefield, where it is estimated that 1,000 shells landed for every square meter. Does anyone know if one can walk through the various woods where the fighting took place, or is it all off-limits because of unexploded shells?